In Hollister U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,842, there is disclosed a safety needle container, to be used with a syringe, that protects a user from being accidentally pricked by the sharp end of a needle. In Hollister U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,489, the safety sheath disclosed in the '842 patent is taught to be mated to a VACUTAINER holder (tube holder). In Hollister U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,285, the '842 safety needle sheath is taught to rotatably mount about neck of a tube holder. The disclosures of the '842, '489 and '285 patents are hereby incorporated to this application by reference.
There is further disclosed in the '489 patent a variant of the invention in which the safety needle sheath is removable from the tube holder. However, this variant (shown in FIG. 4 of the '489 patent) requires that a specially designed safety needle sheath adapter be threadedly mated to a tube holder; and that after use, the housing be removed from the tube holder. This variant was found to be impractical due to its dimensional requirements.